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Wednesday, 26 May 2010

'Efemera Ink' is both the name of a monthly crafting get together in my local area run by 'Effie' and it's also the name of Effie's blog which regularly features her inspirational altered items and mixed media projects. Reading Effie's blog makes up for the fact that I can't get to many Efemera Ink craft days [or 'glue 'n stick' as they're affectionately termed!] due to an inconvenient distraction know as 'work'. Luckily, now term has ended I'm hoping to get to a few more.

*Copy*This is Effie's finished example of the wallhanging we were to take inspiration from during her March 'Efemera Ink' workshop that I somehow managed to attend!

For more images and to hear Effie's take on the workshop have a read of her post here.

The key elements of the wall hanging she created for us to 'copy' were:

a chipboard base;

vintage book paper;

velvet and lace coloured with iron-on disperse dyes;

tomato puree tube metal embellishments;

a triple embossed heart and;

some stitiching.

After talking us through her process in the morning we all spent the day interpreting the idea using the provided ingredients but adding in our own finishing touches to personalise it.

*Paste*Here's my finished piece, rather than use the gold colour of the inside of the puree tube I used the green [and barcode!] of the outside:

We stamped into the embossing powder on the heart while it was still warm so that the stamp leaves an imprint:My 'heads' background stamp is by Stampotique from Art From the Heart and then I cut two little heads free from the crowd, mounted them on to chipboard and embossed over the top with UTEE:As I mentioned, it now hangs in my hallway and here it is in situ:As someone who's always been generally quiet in group situations, I never thought I'd be the kind of person who enjoyed crafting in a group like Efemera Ink. But I do. A lot. It's always good to see how we all work in entirely different ways to produce items which, while similar in construction, are totally different in detail.

So, if you're thinking about joining a group but don't think it's for you, pleeeeease give it a try. At least once. You never know where it might lead. Before I met the Effie and the 'Efemera Ink' ladies I didn't know any other crafters in my area. Now I attend the workshops when I can, the crop each month with many of the same faces, a group of us get together twice a year for a crafting retreat in a country cottage and Jean who brings her shop [3DJean] to the crafting days recently asked a handful of us on to her 'Scattered Scarlet' design team!

Oh and ... crafting groups are also a perfectly wholesome way to get you out of the house, drinking tea, chatting with fellow crafty types and wherever there's a group of crafters there's, more often than not, an opportunity for eating cake! Who could argue with that logic?

We'd love to hear about the groups you attend [either in 'real-life' or online] or even those you wish you could attend. Are you a social crafter? Or do you prefer yourown company or do you enjoy a bit of both? You kow the drill .... we're nosy / curious ..... so whatever you want to share ... our ears are open ....

Thanks so much to everyone who took part and made something – it really would be much too hard to pick out a favourite, so we’ve gone the random route again. Instead of numbers (because, confusingly, not all commenters entered the challenge, and not all entries commented), I wrote down everyone’s name on a scrap of paper, folded them up and – because there’s nothing like a good cliché – pulled one out of my favourite hat at random.

Congratulations, Dolly! Drop me an email with your postal address and I’ll pass it on to Jenny at Papercraft Inspirations so you can enjoy a whole year of reading.

While that last little bit of business means the party really is over now, don’t forget you can still go back and relive your favourite bits by clicking through the links to your right.

Me and Julie? We’re going to share the washing up, take down the decorations and finish off a few last cake crumbs. Sigh…

Cast your mind back to the time when, at the start of our 'birthdaversay' party in this post, I decided to get nosey and ask you all some probing questions ..... Remember how I promised that I would share my responses with you so you didn't feel like you'd exposed yourself on your own ..... [I think I'll stop that metaphor right there ...]

Well, I finally got around to answering them for you but ..... wow, talk about pulling teeth!

They were harder to do than I thought - I'm amazed at how 'up for it' lots of you were and how quickly you responded!! Thanks and well done, bravo, good on you, you're fabulous. Go you!

I've posted my efforts hereon my 'notes on paper' blog ... take a look, have a nosey around my brain, see what you think, spot where we're similar [and where we differ wildly] ..... submit your analysis of my psyche, OK maybe don't do that last one ........!

So it's time to choose our winners and as I could never have decided without it I've used the number generator at www.random.org to select the winners of the Gauche Alchemy colour kits and the canvas bag with embellishments!

Please send your postal address to us at: thecopyandpasteproject [at] googlemail.com where we'll then pass on your details to the Gauche Alchemy team.

Next up is the winner of the plain cotton bag with embellishments and fabric from my hoard:Congratulations Donna- Mr.Random chose you!! Please send your postal details to the same email adress as above and I'll get your bag kit into the post to you this week.

Thanks again to everyone who played along with us, and left comments to win, sorry we couldn't have given you all a little party gift!

Thursday, 13 May 2010

If I said I'd fully recovered from our "30 posts in 2.5 days 'birthdaversay' blogging bonanza" ... then I'd be lying. Let's just say that with the help of a day off work and lots of illuminating under-eye conceale .... I'll make it through the day!

We can't thank you enough for all your wonderful support, comments and feedback on our party. We've been thrilled at the response and delighted that our early, loyal readers are still supporting us at the same time that first-time readers are landing. You're all very welcome, anytime.

All we can do is promise that we'll keep offering:

new projects;

inspirational guests;

chances to guest-blog for us:

tutorials;

and giveaways throughout another year.

Until then, let me remind you of the giveaways which you can still enter. You have until late Sunday night [UK time] to enter [see each post for exact details].

*The Prize Challenge*

If you'd like to win a year's subscription to Papercraft Inspirations magaze [home of our guest-blogger Jo Kill, my brand new 'Scrapbooking for Cardmakers' series and Kirsty's upcoming projects] there's still plenty of time to for you to download Kirsty's fabulous designs: ..... add them to a project ..... .and enter the competition [click here or on the images above for details].*Giveaways*

**Sumptuosityoffered you an chance to win this beautiful, silk, embroidered handbag mirror - click on Alice below to be taken to the post with the details on how to win:

** Gauche Alchemy are offering a set of 10 mixed-media colour kits - click on the photo for more details:

**Julie ..... or 'me' as I like to call myself ... is offering a plain canvas bag and lots of bits and peices with which to decorate it - click on the photo and leave me a comment in that post:

** And finally Kirsty will send a whole party bag of treasures to one lucky commenter - click on photo for details: As for those of you who've already answered the 'What are you like?' set of questions ..... thank you!!!! I've had so much fun [and even a few shivers] reading through them all. It's also been fantastic to see how many of you left comments for each other. It's been truly lovely to see you hopping between blogs and chatting between yourselves! I promise to reveal my answers soon too.

Right then, sun's shining, sky's blue have some cards to make and a baby to visit ..... year 2 of Copy+Paste is treating me kindly so far!

Sunday, 9 May 2010

It’s ok, we’re not about to drunkenly hiccup about how you’re our best friend and we really, really do love you, before welling up and, quite possibly, throwing up in a corner. Surely you’ve realised we’re not that kind of girl by now?

It’s more a case of our being a little bit tired, and a lot overwhelmed by your wonderful comments and support over the last couple of days. Just as we’ve appreciated them throughout Copy+Paste’s first year, they’ve kept us going over a weekend of marathon posting and hosting. I think it’s safe to say we’ve both made some amazing online friends thanks to what started out as a fun little side project for the two of us.

At the risk of sounding like a damp-eyed Oscar winner, we also have a handful of other thanks to hand out.

Thank you so much for your hard work and wonderful contributions – you have our hearts, admiration and undying gratitude.

The same is also true of our super-generous sponsors, namely Papercraft Inspirations (thanks, Jenny!) and Gauche Alchemy (thanks, Amy& Heather!), along with equally covetable competitions from Ruth at Sumptuosity and Gabrielle at The Green Gal (our new heroes).

If you missed any of the guest posts or still want to enter the competitions, you can click through via the handy links on the right.

Which just leaves . . . well, us. And we really aren’t about to get gushy over how much we’ve enjoyed working together, couldn’t have done it without each other and want to be back here celebrating two years this time in 2011.

Because that would be just a little bit too Gwyneth Paltrow for anyone to bear.

Thank you so much for sticking with us, whether it’s been twelve months, a weekend of partying, or even if you’ve discovered us for the first time today. We’ll be back to business as normal from tomorrow onwards – we’d love to see you anytime you’re passing.

Alex Horne is a writer and comedian who's partly responsible for the fabulous BBC4 show We Need Answers while being fully responsible for singeing a book of his which I bought after one of his gigs ... and yes, I do mean 'singeing'. Alex is also the kind of man who you could describe as one of life's over-achievers. His current ambitions are to get a word he's invented into the dictionary, to become the world's oldest man:

..... and to get to a certain party on time .....

'Inspiration'

By Alex Horne

It’s Sunday night and I’m ashamed.

I promised to come to my first blog party and on the night in question here I am, at home (well, my parents-in-laws’ home), miles from the get-together. In fact, I’m just about to get into bed. I’m pretty sure I’m a blog party-pooper.

But I didn’t mean to shun this party. I blame my son. He’s going to be one year old in ten days time and for the past 12 months he’s stopped me going to almost every sort of social occasion. Not that I mind. Every day’s a party when you’re a new parent (a strange sort of party with naps, nappies and crying). But it does mean I’ve missed rather a lot of events and had rather a lot of early nights instead.

Just before turning in tonight I checked my emails and discovered the invitation to this particular party. I kicked myself (quietly – Tom’s asleep) because I’d so wanted to go to this one.

Mainly because it didn’t involve organising a baby-sitter.

So here I am. Fashionably or, more likely, frustratingly late, but here nevertheless. I might even be a whole day late, in which case I promise to help with the clearing up.

But what I wanted to say is that this is exactly how I’m inspired to write.

I need deadlines – often last-minute deadlines – to force me to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Without deadlines I’d sit and stare at my son all day. But now, with three hours until the 9th of May is over I feel I can suddenly write something.

It may be little more than a note of apology but I have written something. And that’s often how I feel about my entire writing career: better to write something than not. If it’s terrible you don’t have to show it to anyone but it will do you some good. You have to start something to finish something.

And I have to be badgered to start something.

So there we go. Sorry, thanks and happy blog party!

Thank you Alex! Very much.

You made it to the party in time and you're most welcome .... even if you are in your pyjamas!

As for the rest of you, you really ought to treat yourself to a funny, friendly and thoroughly life-affirming night out and catch one of Alex's upcoming live shows.

Earlier this year, I went to my nephew’s birthday party. He was five, and so were most of his guests. The party was held in one of those play centres – the kind that’s filled with things for small boys to clamber on, crawl through, swing from, slide down or throw at unsuspecting grown-ups. Fun if you're five, not so much if you're a germ-phobic thirty-something.

Let's just say I was a little more willing to leave then most of the smaller guests. My sister’s solution to the impressive array of tears, tantrums and glowering sulks they offered up, was the time-honoured party bag. Give a child a bag filled with stuff made from processed sugar or cheap plastic, and they’ll mostly head home as happy as they were when they arrived at ball-pond central.

In the same way you’re probably assuming by now that I’m a complete Eeyore of an aunt (not true), I am going to assume that plastic and processed sugar won’t quite cut it for party-goers as discerning as you. So, I’ve come up with something a bit different.

This little bundle of goodies is all about favourites – a framed, handmade picture created with my favourite Banana Frogstamps, postcards by a couple of my favourite artists and a hand-stitched scarf from one of my favourite Etsy shops, Syko. To prove I’m not a total Eeyore, and because all good party bags should include something delicious, I’ll also add some favourite chocolate before mailing.

To win this happiest of party bags, all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me your favourite Copy+Paste post from our first year of blogging.

The closing date for entries is 23:00 [BST] on Sunday 16th May and the winner, chosen at random, will be announced ASAP afterwards.

The work of Corrina Rothwell always makes me stop and smile.If you're a regular Copy+Paste reader you may remember that I featured some of Corrina's work earlier this year here, in one of our 'I'd Like To Copy' posts, where Kirsty and I share the people and things which have been inspiring us.Luckily for us, I don't have to 'copy' Corrina as she's now here in person to share some of her originals with us: Hello! My name is Corrina Rothwell and I'm a Rochdale-born Nottingham-based artist and illustrator. I'm self-taught. Until a year ago I was working with machine embroidery but I grew bored and frustrated with that after 15 years of it. Now I work solely on a graphics tablet, which I adore. My inspiration comes from right under my nose or from inside my head. I'm very lazy, I don't look very far. But I don't have to! There's so much material just in plain old everyday life that is amusing, poignant, entertaining, aggravating and lends itself to pictorial interpretation.

I usually start a new series of work when I have something specific to work towards – very rarely do I draw just 'for the hell of it'. In between drawing spells I collect ideas in the form of either notes or photos on my mobile phone or a few words scribbled in my diary or notebook. I used to be a sketchbook person but not now. I think that's because when things from the 'outside world' inspire me it's usually the words that come to me before the images. I guess what I'm doing these days is illustrating my own words....

I've just done a series of 10 pictures called The Rothwell Chronicles for a one-night event at my friend's gallery in Nottingham. This is the name of my blog – I started this year with a promise to do a picture-a-day on it, but I caved in around the end of February. Anyway the idea was to just do a picture about something, anything that had happened or I had thought about during that day, as a kind of disciplinary exercise. But I don't really like being told what to do, not even by myself. The Rothwell Chronicles is actually a bit redundant as a theme, because really you could put all my work under that umbrella – it's just me chronicling life as I see it. I'll share a few of the Chronicles pictures with you and try to explain how they came about......

1) Beetroot Before Bedtime: This is a kind of follow-on from an embroidery I did called The Beetroot Appreciation Society – I am a huge beetroot fan and basically I got a kick out of making it look like a bloody massacre. So much so that I did this one:

After having a few beers one night I came home and devoured a load of beetroot. I kind of forgot about it, as you do, until I came down in the morming and saw the, er, bloody mess.2) Cashew Queue:

Every time I went in the main Post Office in Nottingham this would tickle me so I thought I'd better make it into a picture. There was the automated voice saying 'cashier number nine' and to me it sounded for all the world like 'cashew'. They've got a different system now, and it sadly no longer sounds nutty.

3) Dogfood – I didn't actually hear anybody saying this, but it really disgusts me that some people have more sympathy for the dog than the person, so this was my sardonic take on it:

4) Pyjamas – this is one of these things that a lot of people probably do but don't really talk about, sticking your coat and boots on over your jimjams to go and get a pint of milk in the morning:

A lot of my pictures are like this actually, capturing those little things that you do, and it's always really nice when people say 'oh my god I do that!' or 'that always happens to me!' like in Mascara Trauma:

A total of 50 photographers are involved, each capturing a different English county, and submitting images under six categories: -Person; Group; Work; Play; Urban and Rural.

To paraphrase the website, "The photographers' brief is to represent their own style of photography, as well as their county. They have complete freedom as to how they respond to the assignments and hopefully, by the end of 2010, the 300 images submitted over the course of the year will help to answer the brief: 'What is England?'."

*Copy*

In true Copy + Paste style we've both had a turn at interpreting the 6 categories for ourselves.

While parts of the area in which photographer Carl Mole lives and works have been both run down both economically and through the media's less than favourable representations, Carl's photos consistently capture the strength and dignity of the area - my area - and its people: Little wonder then that photographer Stuart Pilkington chose Carl to represent Cleveland in his national photography project What is England? which aims to discover the identity of England through the eyes of 50 regional photographers. I asked Carl to give us an idea of influences which have shaped his ideas of what is worth capturing through his lens.

The Man-Altered Landscape

There are far too many photographers, and photographic styles to take inspiration from. Each new photobook I buy becomes a new source of inspiration, too many books and not enough shelves.

“The New Topographics:Photographs of a man-Altered Landscape” was a title of a 1975 American photography exhibition, this was a new aesthetic that reflected the landscape not as a pristine and romantic ideal as portrayed by Ansel Adams etc, but without sentimentality showing how man intervened and transformed the landscape. I suppose you could call this finding beauty in the mundane and banal.

Landscapes will include roads, cars, housing, industry and any aspect which shows the influence and trace of human activity.

Presidio, Texas 1975. Stephen Shore:

But, a lot of the work that I’ve been producing has had the underlying theme of the man-altered landscape in mind.

Some of the photographers included in the exhibition where Robert Adams, John Schott, Lewis Baltz and Stephen Shore (who is a great photographic hero of mine, check out the book American Surfaces).

Mobile Homes, Colorado 1973. Robert Adams

The idea of the New Topographics movement has always been in the back of my mind while exploring the area around where I live, since industry and the urban enviroment are a big part of the local area.

Some examples of the work I’ve produced using the New Topographics movement loosely in mind are: Carl.

I think that the points Carl raises about finding beauty in the mundane is an interesting one for any scrapbookers out there who are wondering what to photograph and how to best record their everyday lives as well as the grand momentous events of life.

To see how Kirsty and I have interpreted the categories from the What Is England? project check back in to see us later.

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*the copy and pasters*

*ctrl+c and ctrl+v*

Being creative and original doesn't always have to begin with re-invented wheels, clean slates and blank pages.

*COPY*:There's a world of perfectly ingenious mind-stirring quotations, lyrics, conversations, designs, photographs, bits, pieces and miscellaneous bobs out there ... and we like to find them and share them with you.

*PASTE*: Sometimes we take from these 'found' gems and make something satisfyingly new from paper, paint, pixels, fineliners, fabric, fluff, glue, crayon, words ... mime ... OK, maybe not mime. And sometimes we just look at them and take in their fabulousness.

We'd love it if you picked up your creative-tool-of-choice and do some copying and pasting alongside us, and we'd be jsut as happy if you dropped by to read and look at the work of some great artists and creative people.We'd be happier still if you'd bring a friend with you... and some refreshments.